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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23647411">Lonely rose</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciliasol/pseuds/ceciliasol'>ceciliasol</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Frozen (Disney Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And quite possibly the last, Canon compliant (surprisingly enough), Drama, Elsa's teenage years, F/F, First Elsa/Ada fic ever, Fluff, Teen Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:53:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,816</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23647411</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciliasol/pseuds/ceciliasol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen years old Elsa can’t stand isolation anymore. One day, a suspicious stranger shows up outside her window, and two lonely girls forge a very unexpected relationship.</p><p>Set six years before Elsa's coronation. This story is meant to fill the gap left in the first movie of what happened to Elsa during all those years while she locked herself inside her room.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ada/Elsa (Disney: Frozen), Elsa (Disney)/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lonely rose</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>FYI: I'm tagging this as OC because Ada is such a minor character in the Frozen franchise that she essentially counts as one (she literally has just one line in Forest of Shadows). If you haven't read the book though, don't Google her. Read the fic first.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was her first year as a soldier-in-training at the Castle Guard. There had been a time when only men had been allowed to become Arendellian soldiers, but this changed after Ada’s grandmother, Henrietta, saved King Agnarr from a group of ruffians that had been plotting to ransack the castle, and was immediately admitted into the king’s personal guard. The reign of King Agnarr had been a time of many changes in Arendelle’s laws and customs; partly, some would say, due to the bright mind of his wife, Queen Iduna.</p><p>Ada wasn’t set on a life in the military just yet. But being a trainee at the castle meant food and housing for three years, and the promise of a steady job with decent pay at the end of that time. The Summer family had never had much money, and, being the eldest of four sisters, Ada knew that applying for the training program would take a burden off her poor mother’s back.</p><p>But apart from her daily training sessions in sword and martial arts, and doing odd jobs here and there whenever someone asked her to, there was not much for Ada to do with her time. She was the youngest student in the army, having only just turned fifteen, and was also the only girl anywhere about her age. The boys, she found tolerable at best. The adults were boring, busy or both. So, in essence, Ada was bored.</p><p>She had already been punished for climbing the trees of the castle garden and riding one of the horses from the stable around town. The idea of being expelled from the training program wasn’t sounding very tempting, so Ada promised herself she would refrain from doing anything too extreme.</p><p>Unfortunately, that didn’t work out very well.</p><p>The west wing of the castle oversaw the delta of Arenfjord, making it a more secluded part of the castle grounds. Barely any guards patrolled the terrain around those parts. It was a time of peace in Arendelle, and even crime rates were very low under the reign of fair King Agnarr. Nobody expected a threat to come in from the sea. Nobody expected a threat of any kind. And sure, there were watch towers all around the castle, but who even bothered? Ada thought this was a perfect opportunity to do some mischief without getting caught. Nimble as a hale, she escalated the stone wall of the castle and climbed onto the roof, gently so as not to make too much noise.</p><p>Now, what could there be up here? There were many windows for her to check. Taking extra care so nobody saw her peeping, Ada looked through each of them. Even her wariness had been unwarranted, for there were no people in most of the rooms.</p><p>Library.</p><p>Study Room.</p><p>The third window was locked, on to the next.</p><p>Lavatory.</p><p>Ooooh. What was this?</p><p>Inside the fifth room from the right, Ada saw a girl about her age. She had silver blonde hair, almost white, and wore a dress so fine and delicate it was easy to tell she wasn’t part of the castle staff. This girl, whoever she was, clearly belonged to the Royal Family of Arendelle.</p><p>Everyone knew the kingdom was ruled by King Agnarr. And Queen Iduna’s name came up so often in leisurely conversations around town that it would be hard to neglect her. Yet Ada couldn’t for the love of her remember the names of their children. She supposed they <em>had</em> children, right? But how many princes or princesses, she could not fathom. And besides, a girl with silver hair... that was pretty uncommon in Arendelle. Ada might even say that was the first time she was seeing someone like that. So maybe she <em>wasn’t</em> from around there. Maybe she was a visitor, the daughter of a noble from another kingdom, somewhere where it was normal for people to be born with white hair.</p><p>As she stared, she saw the girl take off one of her odd blue gloves, the one piece of garment she wore that didn’t seem to match the rest of her outfit. With her back turned to the window, the silver-haired girl spoke into the empty room.</p><p>“Control it, Elsa. Come on, you can do it.”</p><p>And then, the most magical thing happened, and quite literally, too. Ada saw a wisp of blue light shine from the girl’s open palm, and slowly an object seemed to cast itself into existence out of thin air. It was... a rose? But it wasn’t a real rose, it was a rose made of ice, petals blossoming slowly into a beautiful, almost living sculpture.</p><p>The entire event so alluring that Ada completely forgot just how delicate her own situation was, at the moment. Her right foot slipped, and made a noise as it hit the roof tiles.</p><p>Everything happened at once. The white-haired girl turned around to look, exclaiming “who’s there?!” while Ada attempted to duck and dash away from the window as fast as possible... except she couldn’t. As she looked up, Ada saw that her right hand had been frozen to the windowsill. Such was the adrenaline of the moment that she didn’t even notice the cold of it until she’d looked.</p><p>“Are you a thief?” asked the noblesse girl. Ada heard her coming closer, but no matter how much she pulled, she just couldn’t manage to yank herself free.</p><p>She got to her feet again at the same time as the girl reached the windowsill, and they both froze in place, looking into each other’s eyes, faces so close their noses were almost touching.</p><p>All of Ada’s thoughts simply flew out of her mind. How could there be such a beautiful creature in this world? Was she an angel? It made sense, seeing that she could use magic. Do angels use magic, though? Well, this one most certainly did.</p><p>It was the angel that spoke first.</p><p>“A... castle guard?” she inquired, wide-eyed, looking down at Ada’s uniform. It brought Ada back the urgency of the situation. There was no time to lose being infatuated with the angel before her. She panicked, but there was nothing she could do, her hand was still frozen to the windowsill and not likely to thaw anytime soon. The angel acted first, turning around and walking toward the door. “I’m calling my father,” she informed. Even in her desperation, Ada could notice her putting the blue glove back on. But that hardly mattered.</p><p>“Please don’t tell!” she pleaded, a bit too loud. It stopped the angel girl in her tracks, one gloved hand over the doorknob, ready to turn it. Ada continued, in a more reserved tone. “If you tell someone I’m here,” she said to the angel, “they’re gonna kick me out of the guard. And then I’m gonna have to go back to my mum’s and we haven’t enough food for everyone back home, and I can’t see mum starving herself for us again...” Ada was being completely sincere. Tears began to form in her eyes. Distrustful as she was, the white-haired girl relented a little, turning away from the door and walking back toward the window.</p><p>“Why are you here?” she asked, cautiously.</p><p>Ada wiped the tears on the sleeve of her uniform. “Sorry,” she whispered, and took deep breaths to calm herself and stop herself from crying again. It was unsightly for a castle guard to cry, particularly in front of the noblesse. She figured she should begin by apologizing. “I’m sorry for coming here, and I’m sorry for crying. I shouldn’t be here.”</p><p>“Well, that much is clear,” said the other girl. “But why?”</p><p>“I was... bored, I think,” Ada tried to explain, without meeting the girl’s eyes. “I’m still in training, there’s not much for me to do. The other students are a bunch of jerks, too, so I kind of do my own thing. Climb trees, ride horses, walk on rooftops, fun stuff, you know?”</p><p>The expression on the other girl’s face suggested that she didn’t actually know. Well, Ada should have guessed. She had never seen any noble, adult or child, having fun in the way she did. Not even in the stories. She assumed the noblesse must have their own private way of having fun that she very much knew nothing about.</p><p>The white-haired girl raised her eyebrows.</p><p>“You climb on the roof of a castle and spy into a princess’ room and you want me to believe that you were just doing it out of fun?” she asked, annoyed more than anything.</p><p><em>Well, yes</em>, Ada thought, but something else the girl had said caught her attention.</p><p>“So you <em>are</em> a princess!” Ada exclaimed, with a smile.</p><p>That seemed to baffle the white-haired girl even more than her previous statement. “What did you even think I was?” she asked.</p><p>“To be honest,” said Ada, suddenly filled with courage, “when I saw you just now I thought you were an angel.”</p><p>The princess scoffed. “An angel!” she murmured to herself, perplexed. Then she turned around to look at Ada, with a grave expression on her face, and proclaimed: “I am Princess Elsa of Arendelle. Daughter of Agnarr and Iduna, and heir to the throne.”</p><p>Princess Elsa, or so she claimed, took a couple of steps toward Ada as she spoke. But as soon as she’d finished saying it, the floor beneath her feet froze, a thin layer of ice spreading from where she stood toward the walls, stopping halfway up to the ceiling. The vivid display of magic amazed Ada once more, but it seemed to cause Elsa distress. The princess looked away, downcast. “It’s getting worse,” she whispered to herself. Ada had almost failed to catch her words, but her hearing was quite sharp for most people’s standards. She saw the change in the princess’ face, and figured it had to do with her magic. Why did that beautiful creature look so miserable while staring at the ice she had created?</p><p>“I think it’s beautiful,” Ada said, out of impulse.</p><p>“What?” asked Elsa, confused.</p><p>“Your ice,” she explained. “It’s delicate and complex, intricate, I should say. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” <em>After you</em>, Ada wanted to add, but decided not to take any more chances. She was in deep enough trouble as it was.</p><p>“It’s a curse,” the princess announced.</p><p>“Is it?” Ada questioned. “I mean... you are able to create such marvelous things. Like that rose from before. That was incredible.”</p><p>Surprisingly, Ada saw the girl cover her eyes with her gloved hands, and she could tell Princess Elsa was blushing. “Damn. You saw that?”</p><p>“Why do you hide it?” Ada inquired, curiosity getting the better of her. “I’ve never heard that there was a magic princess living in the castle.”</p><p>Princess Elsa uncovered her face, and Ada saw despair in her eyes. She ran over to where the apprentice guard was standing, outside the window with one hand still frozen to the windowsill, and pleaded to Ada in terror:</p><p>“You must never tell anyone! Never! If you tell...” Elsa closed her eyes, looking miserable for a moment. “If you tell, someone I love might die. And I can’t let that happen.”</p><p>The princess opened her eyes, and stared into Ada’s eyes. They were both too close to each other, again.</p><p>“Hey,” said Ada, smiling charmingly. “You keep my secret, and I’ll keep yours.”</p><p>Princess Elsa let out a breath of relief. “Deal,” she said, and extended her hand to shake Ada’s. Which turned into a really awkward situation, seeing as Ada’s right hand was still frozen to the windowsill. The apprentice guard started laughing, and was unexpectedly followed by a giggle by the princess herself. Ada offered her other hand, and the two girls shook their left hands.</p><p>“So, can you, like... unfreeze me now?” Ada asked.</p><p>Elsa looked saddened for just a moment. “I don’t know how to thaw it,” she explained. “But I do have a candle somewhere. Hold on.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After that day, Ada and Elsa began to see each other much more frequently. Elsa rarely left her room. She had private lessons on law and politics and a number of other areas of human knowledge Ada had never even heard of (what the heck was algebra?). She also had most of her meals delivered to her, and the lavatory was just down the corridor from her room. On rare occasions, she left to visit the library and take a few books back to her room. She also dined with the rest of the royal family in the great hall, but other than that, Elsa kept to herself in her room.</p><p>Ada learned that Agnarr and Iduna had two daughters. Besides Elsa, there was a younger daughter, whom some of the castle staff not too kindly sometimes referred to as the “spare” daughter. But news from either of them hardly ever saw the light of day, seeing as the castle doors remained shut almost all of the time, and the princesses barely ever left the castle. For an outsider, it would seem to be a pretty odd situation, but Ada alone knew the truth. Elsa had told her that if people found out about her magic, <em>someone she loved might die</em>. She didn’t offer any further explanation on that for a long time to come, but just knowing that much was enough for Ada to see how hard it would be for Elsa to leave. The ice princess was not always in control of her powers.</p><p>All of this Ada had learned during her secret visits to the princess’ room. Every afternoon, except when either of them had an appointment scheduled, Ada climbed the castle wall and came in through her window. Then they sat down together and talked to each other for at least a couple of hours, taking care to speak quietly so nobody knew Ada was there. At first, Princess Elsa seemed really distrustful of the girl. She would severely avoid telling the outsider anything about her powers, her family, or her past, and changed the subject of conversation to something else entirely whenever she was uncomfortable with the current topic.</p><p>Ada, whose life was something of an open book, told Elsa nearly everything about herself. She spoke of her mother and three sisters, of her childhood moving from town to town until they eventually arrived at Arendelle, and especially of her favorite pastime activities when she wasn’t confined inside the castle walls, which included horseback riding, hiking and trekking to any waterfall she came across. When Elsa pointed out how dangerous it was for her to do those things alone, Ada patted the hilt of her sword smugly... but later admitted that she usually went with an uncle or a family friend. Ada had never even used her sword in combat, it seems, but working in the castle guard meant she would probably have to, eventually. That thought didn’t sit well with Elsa. She hated the idea of putting people’s lives in danger. And Ada was going to become a soldier of Arendelle, which meant she would be putting her life in danger for <em>her</em>.</p><p>“You shouldn’t be here,” she told Ada, one day, as they sat side-by-side under the windowsill. “It’s risky.”</p><p>“Risky?” said the other girl, lightly punching Elsa’s upper arm in a friendly manner. “I don’t see how so.”</p><p>Elsa did. They had already had that exact conversation a few other times, but she never elaborated further. It took two whole months for Elsa to start trusting Ada enough to confide her secrets to her, or at least some of them. But now... now she could do it.</p><p>She told Ada of the accident with her sister Anna, years before. Elsa explained, not without almost bringing herself to tears, how a troll named Grand Pabbie had to alter Anna’s memories in order to save her from the blast of Elsa’s ice. Because it was like that, Anna had no recollection of Elsa’s powers. But what she feared most, was that if Anna ever came to know about her powers again, the memories changed by Grand Pabbie might revert to what they once were, and Anna would be in danger once more.</p><p>That was it, Ada realized, the reason why Elsa hid herself in her room for so many years. She was doing it out of fear, of course, but also out of love for her sister. It was beautiful, that sort of love. Did Ada ever have something like that with her own sisters? She supposed not. Ada loved them, yes, but they could get in her nerves sometimes, and they ended up fighting most of the time. Like that one time Nala found out Ada had romantic feelings for Baker Blodget’s daughter. Terrible episode, didn’t do good for most of those involved, but ended spectacularly horrible for a certain broken-hearted Ada. Oh, well, she still lived.</p><p>Ada looked at Princess Elsa’s forlorn face.</p><p>“Hey, Elsa,” she called. She had long since dropped honorifics when talking to the princess. Elsa was her <em>friend</em>, above all else. “Do you ever think about, you know, falling in love with someone?”</p><p>Elsa shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t... much.” As the weeks passed, she was finding it increasingly harder to conceal her feelings from Ada. “I mean... I do, sometimes, wonder if I’ll ever be able to fall in love, but when I remember my curse, and the ice, I just...”</p><p>Ada felt her chest tighten. This wasn’t fair on the princess. Her magic was so beautiful. So why was it also so restrictive, like a pair of shackles — or gloves? Elsa was the most incredible, kind-hearted, and special person Ada had ever met, she deserved so much more.</p><p>The soldier-in-training rested one hand on the princess’ cheek, gently turning her face so that they were staring at each other. Elsa seemed about to cry. And she had such beautiful eyes, it would be such a shame to fill them with tears.</p><p>Ada always acted without thinking. It was a personality trait of hers that Elsa seemed to be the exact opposite of. And just so, she wasn’t thinking when she brought their faces closer together, and stole the princess’ lips. It had been just a brief moment, but seemed to last an eternity. And though Elsa’s room was always cold from her ice powers seeping out of control, at that moment Ada felt incredibly warm inside. She opened her eyes, and stared intensely into Elsa’s. That girl’s eyes were like the sky, or maybe an ocean — infinite, and Ada felt that she could lose herself in them if she tried.</p><p>Realization only hit her when she heard the white-haired girl whisper a word to her.</p><p>“What?” said Elsa.</p><p>Then Ada’s world crumbled to pieces. What had she done? She’d kissed Elsa! <em>The</em> Elsa! Oh, no, this wasn’t good. Oh, no, this was terrible.</p><p>Swiftly, Ada raised from the floor and swung her body through the window, ready to run away. But she was stopped when she felt Elsa’s hand wrapped around her wrist, holding her still.</p><p>“I swear,” said the princess, sounding mildly angry, “that if you leave me now I’m going to freeze your hand to the window again.”</p><p>Princess Elsa’s threat hung in the air for a few seconds, and nobody said anything. Then Ada raised a hand to cover her mouth as she was overcome with a fit of giggles. The atmosphere lightened up, and even Elsa found a smile beginning to creep onto her lips. Her grip on her friend’s arm relaxed a little.</p><p>“That’s so like you,” Ada stated, and turned around to stare the princess in her eyes. Elsa was confused, more than anything. She’d been scared when she thought Ada was about to jump out of her window and disappear forever, but now that this didn’t seem to be the case, she relaxed, and her mind was filled with doubts about her friend and that kiss.</p><p>Ada, however, was a pile of nerves, in spite of her smile.</p><p>“Why did you kiss me?” Elsa asked.</p><p>“I just felt like it,” said the other girl. Elsa’s mind raced as she tried to process that new information. How can you kiss someone just because you <em>felt like it?</em></p><p>Ada knew that she owed the princess an apology.</p><p>“Okay, here it goes,” she said. “I know I was way out of line here, and I hope you can forgive me, and I really really hope that we can stay friends like normal. It’s just... you know, sometimes I act without thinking, and before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve already done it. I guess...” but as soon as she said the word, Ada knew it was the wrong one, so she fixed it: “...no, I’m <em>sure</em>. I’m sure I like you, Elsa, for real. But you’re my friend, and you’re like, Princess Elsa of Arendelle, daughter of Agnarr and Iduna, heir to the throne,” she repeated Elsa’s words back to her, knowing that they could get her point across, “while I’m just this girl from a poor family trying to make a living. So if—”</p><p>Ada had to stop talking, for Elsa had just placed a finger in front of her lips.</p><p>“Ada...” called the princess, lovingly, “...do you really think I care about all that stuff?”</p><p>Upon hearing that, Ada lost all her words. Her mouth hung open, slightly, and she had the biggest expression of astonishment plastered on her face. She just acted without thinking again, and gave Elsa another kiss, a longer one, but stopped, befuddled, when she realized the other girl was crying.</p><p>“What? What’s that?” Ada asked, worried. “Did I... Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?”</p><p>Elsa shook her head, and attempted to wipe her tears with the cuffs of her blouse. “No, silly, I’m happy,” said the princess. “I never... I really never thought I’d ever get to kiss someone like this.”</p><p>Ada wrapped her arms around the princess, holding her in a tight embrace. The words “I love you,” fluttered by on her mind, as a wild suggestion, but she didn’t say them. The moment she was sharing with Elsa then was good enough as it was, there was no need to further complicate things. At least, not yet.</p><p>Then a man’s voice boomed from somewhere nearby.</p><p>“Who’s there?” it had said.</p><p>Elsa hastily pulled Ada into the room, and they fell on top of each other, giggling. Then Elsa carefully pushed Ada aside, and walked up to the window, where she shouted a reply back to the captain of the Arendellian guard, telling him it was nothing, and everything was fine. Sure, it was suspicious, but Elsa was royal family. If she said things were fine, well, things were fine.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Winter solstice was Elsa’s birthday, and Ada was determined to find a present for the princess, even though she'd had a really tough time trying to decide on what it would be. It wouldn’t do to simply buy her something, for two reasons. Reason number one, Ada had no money. Reason number two, Princess Elsa of Arendelle certainly <em>did </em>have money, and she could ask the castle staff to buy for her anything she fancied. So it had to be something different. After racking her brains for a while, she found out something which seemed at least a little bit adequate.</p><p>She had to bring a bit of the outside world for her.</p><p>Ada asked Captain Lucius, her mentor from the Castle Guard, for a journal to put down her thoughts, as well as pen and ink. Those weren’t exactly cheap supplies, but they weren’t expensive enough that the Captain couldn’t do one of his students a favor. Then, Ada took a day off from training to go to all of her favorite spots in Arendelle. She visited the waterfall, the pier, the lighthouse, the botanist shop, steered clear of the bakery, and even a few more adventurous places upstream from the fjord. Everywhere she went, Ada wrote down a description of the place, as well as her impressions of it. Completing it took her from dawn to dusk, and then some, but she was fairly happy with how it turned out in the end.</p><p>She handed it to Elsa the next day, along with a (stolen) rose from the castle garden.</p><p>“A rose?” Elsa asked, amused. There were plenty of roses in the castle, but she still appreciated the gesture.</p><p>“If I remember right,” said Ada, “we met because of a rose.”</p><p>“And what’s this?” said Elsa, looking at the journal with curiosity. Ada motioned for her to open it. The first thing Elsa noticed was that calligraphy was not Ada’s strong point, but she found this very fact quite endearing. Then she started to read the content of the pages. Some even had illustrations, drawn to the best of the to-be-soldier’s abilities. She recognized one of them... The lighthouse, that she could see from her bedroom window, standing on a lonely rock where the fjord met the ocean. “Are these...”</p><p>“They’re all the places I love in Arendelle,” Ada explained. “So that one day, when you’re finally free to leave the castle, you can visit them and see for yourself. But until then... well, I wrote down what I think about each one. It’s a bit silly, and I’m no novelist, but—”</p><p>“It’s beautiful,” said Elsa, interrupting her. A single tear ran down the princess’ cheeks. She looked up at the other girl. “Ada this... this is the sweetest... I mean, it’s so... God, I can’t even find the words.”</p><p>Ada’s chest filled with warmth, and she reached closer to embrace her.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They touched each other that night.</p><p>It was hard work trying to convince Captain Lucius that Ada needed to spend that night with her family, rather than in the castle, but she seemed to have managed. She climbed onto the castle rooftops again, expertly from all the experience she’d gathered in the last three months, and found Elsa waiting for her by the window. She’d frozen half the room over with the dread and anticipation. For the first time since the day they met, Elsa was scared of meeting Ada. They had talked it over before, agreeing that nothing needed to happen, and that they could just quite literally sleep together, or not even that, if either of them didn’t feel ready to take another step. Elsa wanted to, but this meant taking so many risks... It was a blessing that Ada was there for her. It was only when she was with Ada that Elsa felt... not in control, but in peace. Her powers would overflow when she was nervous, or scared, and Ada had a calming effect on her that made Elsa feel that everything could be all right.</p><p>But then again, if things got out of control... no, better not to think about it. She had to trust that everything would be all right. It was Ada. She could do it.</p><p>Ada was a bit surprised to find Elsa’s room in such an arctic situation. Elsa rarely did that anymore, when waiting for her. But she knew the significance of this. It would be both of their first times. Ada wanted to prove to Elsa that she could do it. That she could love and be loved, and not be at mercy of the powers she so often called a curse. But seeing how nervous Elsa was reminded Ada of how nervous <em>she</em> was, and she realized things might not go as planned. Still, she treasured every second she had with Elsa, and this meant that even just talking to each other for a bit then finding a hidden place to sleep outside would still make her happy.</p><p>They stared into each other’s eyes. Sure enough, being with Ada helped Elsa relax. It was that calming effect, again. <em>This is okay</em>, Elsa reassured herself, and leaned closer to give Ada a kiss. They kissed for a short while, then Ada placed a hand on Elsa’s collarbone, gently pushing her back a little. “Hey,” said Ada, in barely more than a whisper, “we don’t have to do anything tonight, you know?”</p><p>Elsa nodded. But she was regaining her confidence, and she didn’t want to fall back now.</p><p>“I want it,” she said, both as a message to Ada and a reassurance to herself.</p><p>Ada led Elsa to the princess’ bed, where they sat and continued to kiss each other. Ada’s hand gently moved to the straps of the other woman’s dress, pulling them over her shoulders so that she could carefully pull down the upper part of Elsa’s dress. She touched Elsa’s chest, and saw that it was having quite an effect on her. Ada felt a thrill as she realized that Elsa was excited, and excited about her.</p><p>They kissed again, as Ada fondled Elsa’s breasts, and then the princess began to reach for the other’s clothes... but stopped.</p><p>She was still wearing her gloves.</p><p>Once she took them out, there was no return.</p><p>Ada understood exactly what was going through her lover’s mind, just then. She placed both of her hands on Elsa’s wrists.</p><p>“Hey, Elsa...” she called, whispering, softly, and they looked into each other’s eyes. “It will be okay, I promise,” Ada told her.</p><p>Elsa’s breath eased. Ada was right.</p><p>She took off her gloves. Slowly, she moved her hands to Ada’s chest, and started to undo the buttons in her uniform, one by one. Then, she placed both her hands on the other woman’s shoulders. Elsa’s touch on her skin felt a little cold, and Ada knew it was because Elsa was still a little nervous. But she wasn’t freezing anything, she wasn’t afraid anymore. It was a reassuring feeling.</p><p>Slowly, Elsa moved her hands down Ada’s shoulders and arms, making her coat fall behind her on the bed. Ada took off her undershirt, and now both women were naked from the waist up. Elsa wanted to touch her. She wanted to touch her so much.</p><p>Ada waited, patiently. Elsa slowly placed the palm of one hand on the other’s chest. Nothing froze. Ada was staring into Elsa’s eyes with an endearing smile on her lips. Elsa wanted to laugh. She had been right to trust Ada after all. This was okay. It would be okay.</p><p>They started kissing again, and this time it was Elsa fondling the other woman’s breasts. This was alright. This was...</p><p>No. It wasn’t.</p><p>The memory of Anna’s accident flashed in Elsa’s mind, the trauma of it all coming back with full force. She had protected Anna. She had the gloves. But now... now she was on her bed with a woman she felt very strongly for... and she was not wearing gloves. She could hurt her. And suddenly, the thought of accidentally hurting Ada was too much for the princess to bear. It was terrifying. The temperature dropped. She pulled back from the kiss.</p><p>Elsa looked at where her hand had been resting, above Ada’s left breast, and saw frost begin to spread on the other girl’s skin.</p><p>“No...” she whispered. And then, as panic began to settle, she gradually started to shout. “No. No! NO!”</p><p>The room around them was instantly covered in frost, floor, walls and ceiling, and it crept behind her door and over the carpet in the corridor outside. Ada was reactionless. She seemed like she could be in pain, a hint of sadness in her face, and her mouth moved, slowly, trying to form words to tell Elsa. But the princess couldn’t calm down enough to make out what the words were. She’d done it. The one thing she’d ever feared. She had hurt someone she loved. Again. Why didn’t she ever learn? And what was happening to Ada? What would happen to her? Would she die? She didn’t want Ada to die. Elsa would do anything she could to stop that from happening. Tears welled up in her eyes and began streaming down her face, as she kept saying “no” repeatedly, powerless to stop the frost from hurting Ada.</p><p>The door to Elsa’s room flung open. Elsa turned to look, and through her tears she saw her mother and father standing in the doorway, looking stupefied at the scene before them.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Elsa was alone again. She waited in silence in the empty bedroom, still frozen over from the other night. She felt empty, miserable, broken. She had cried for hours, from the minute the frost began to spread, all the way to the next morning, unable to fall asleep, unable to even rise from the floor where she’d fallen to her knees, as Ada was taken away from her.</p><p>Her mother had come to talk to the young princess, during the night, but seeing that Elsa didn’t really feel like talking, she had decided to leave Elsa be for the time being, reassuring her daughter that she’d be there for her if she ever wanted to talk.</p><p>It was the early hours of morning when King Agnarr finally returned to the castle. He walked slowly into Elsa’s room, and the girl raised her head to look at him, the first sign of Elsa recognizing the outside world ever since he’d left the castle with Ada in his arms. Agnarr sat down on a chair by the dressing mirror, looking desolately at his daughter.</p><p>“She will be okay,” Agnarr reassured her. “I’ve taken her to some friends who have strong knowledge of magic. They said her wound was only superficial. There was no risk to her life.”</p><p>Agnarr saw Elsa let out a s mall breath of relief. It didn’t improve her disposition much. She was still downcast, still looking miserable. But now she could find the strength in herself to speak.</p><p>“What will happen to her, now?” Elsa asked.</p><p>King Agnarr closed his eyes, and the expression on his face turned grave. This was the part he knew his daughter would not like to hear.</p><p>“She won’t have to leave the guard,” he told her, “but we’ll transfer her to a different division, out in the countryside. It would be... complicated to keep her here after what happened last night.”</p><p>The sadness in Elsa’s eyes seemed unchanged. She had probably already deduced as much, herself. “I understand,” she told her father, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Thank you.”</p><p>King Agnarr got up from his seat, and gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead before leaving the room.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>That night, sitting by herself in the bedroom, Elsa leafed through the pages in the journal Ada had made for her. It hurt. She wanted it to hurt. It was better than feeling nothing.</p><p>She stopped on a page that seemed to talk about a monument in one of the city’s smaller plazas. The statue wasn’t of a famous king, or some other important noble, as most statues are. It was, instead, of a gardener, that for a hundred years cared for a rose garden that surrounded the small square. The garden, Ada had written, was still there, being tended by others who had sworn to honor her legacy. And inscribed on the statue, were some of the woman’s words, which Ada had transcribed:</p><p>“Fear will freeze a person’s heart.</p><p>But love will thaw it and make it blossom.”</p><p>Elsa stopped reading, new tears filling her eyes.</p><p>“Liar,” she told the book, the statue, and Ada. “I hurt you,” she said to the empty room, her voice trembling. Her hands were shaking so much she had to put the book down. “I hurt you,” she repeated. “I loved you, and I hurt you. I froze you.”</p><p>She closed the book and wept for hours.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Elsa spent the next six years in solitude. The death of her parents had been the worst blow she could ever had suffered. Elsa now did not leave the castle for anything, and Anna, who hadn’t seen much of her sister in the years before their parents departure, now barely saw her at all. Most of the time it felt as if she was all alone in the castle. And yet, she still loved her sister.</p><p>The coronation happened. Then the disaster, when Elsa couldn’t control her powers. The journey to the Northern Mountain. Elsa hitting Anna with a blow of ice for the second time, this time freezing her sister’s heart. Her capture. Hans’ betrayal. And finally, Anna’s act of true love, saving Elsa’s life, that thawed her frozen heart.</p><p>As Elsa heard those words, an old poem came back to her. One she hadn’t thought of in years.</p><p>“Love will thaw,” she recited, finally truly able to grasp the meaning of those words.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It had been mere days since the eternal winter had finally been lifted from Arendelle, and the lives of its citizens were slowly beginning to get back on track. Elsa had opened the gates. Permanently, this time. The events of the previous days had changed everyone, including herself. She no longer feared her powers. And not because she had complete control over them — Elsa suspected that this may never truly happen — but because she knew now to use them with love, rather than fear, and she knew that she wouldn’t have to hurt any more people.</p><p>As they walked through the city streets, Anna had been introducing Elsa to many of the townsfolk she was able to meet since the opening of the gates. Anna had been so excited about it.</p><p>“And this is Tuva,” said Anna. “She’s the best blacksmith you can find east of DunBroch. Apart from her wife, of course.” Elsa chuckled at the impromptu praising.</p><p>“It’s an honor to meet you,” Elsa told her.</p><p>“The honor is mine, Your Majesty,” said Tuva.</p><p>Anna dragged her over to another place, where she began introducing some lady who was supposedly able to cure a cow of any disease known to man... but Elsa wasn’t listening anymore. Her eyes found a person, a few meters away from them, and for a moment it was as if nothing else existed in the world. Anna tried to get Elsa’s attention back, but the Queen dismissed her. “Can I have a minute, sis,” she told Anna, and when the princess shrugged, Elsa started walking.</p><p>The woman had seen her too, and smiled.</p><p>“Ada?” Elsa asked, stupefied.</p><p>“My Queen,” said the woman, bowing.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Anna was exceedingly curious to know how it was that Elsa seemed to already know Tuva’s wife, and whatever they could be talking about over there. She saw them hugging each other (a Queen isn’t supposed to hug anyone!), and then Elsa’s eyes were filled with tears (a Queen shouldn’t cry in front of others, either). The two women were talking to each other, in what seemed to be a very emotional reunion, and it felt just a little too personal for Anna to intrude.</p><p>A few meters away, close to the water’s edge, Elsa wiped the last few tears off her eyes.</p><p>“I can’t believe it’s really you,” she told the woman. “I thought I’d never see you again.”</p><p>“I always knew I would see you again,” Ada told her. It sounded a bit too poetic. “Well, to be honest, you’re the Queen, and this is my country, so it would be kind of hard <em>not to</em>, you know?”</p><p>Elsa chuckled, and lightly punched the woman’s upper arm the way Ada had often done to her, back in the day. Ada laughed, but then a hint of concern showed up on her face.</p><p>“I take it you’ve met my wife,” she told Elsa, nudging her head toward the strong-looking woman on the other side of the street.</p><p>“Wait, you’re married...?” said Elsa, shocked, looking between her and Tuva a couple of times. Then, feeling stupid, Elsa wanted to kick herself for having asked that question. She hadn’t seen Ada in six years, of course some things change over time. Still, even if the Queen had sometimes contemplated the possibility of a future reunion, the idea that Ada would be married by then had never even crossed Elsa’s mind.</p><p>Elsa closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. Ada’s words from that day in her bedroom came back to the Queen, then. <em>“It will be okay, I promise,”</em> she had said. And Elsa, realized, with a smile, that Ada had been right all along. Even if life took turns completely unexpected to the both of them, Ada’s promise still rang true. Everything was okay.</p><p>“Can I ask you a question?” said Elsa, looking into Ada’s eyes. The woman nodded. “How are you, right now? Does Tuva make you happy?”</p><p>Elsa saw Ada’s eyes turn to look at her wife, who at the moment was talking excitedly to Olaf. A huge grin slowly spread on Ada’s face.</p><p>“Yeah,” she admitted. “I guess she does.”</p><p>Ada’s answer set Elsa’s heart in peace. She smiled, too.</p><p>“What about you?” Ada asked. The question caught Elsa by surprise. “Have you found happiness?”</p><p>As if to imitate Ada, Elsa turned around to look at the people on the other side of the street. Anna and Olaf and Kristoff and Sven. And she too, couldn’t stop herself from grinning.</p><p>“I can’t complain,” said the Queen.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Elsa and Anna were in the castle’s drawing room. Anna had been playing a board game with Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, while Elsa lay absentmindedly on a couch, leafing through some sort of notebook. It was late. Sven won the last round of the game. Kristoff kissed his girlfriend’s forehead, and told Anna he was going to take Sven to the stables for the night. Anna used that opportunity to ask Olaf to get something for her from the kitchen, leaving Anna alone with her sister for a little while.</p><p>“So...” Anna began to say, approaching Elsa. She sat on the edge of the couch, close to her sister, and Elsa closed her book to look at the younger girl. “I saw you talking to Tuva’s wife this afternoon. It seemed like you two already knew each other. What’s the story?”</p><p>Elsa hesitated, but glanced down at the journal in her hands, and the tension left her. It would be okay to tell Anna, right? But still...</p><p>“I don’t think you’ll believe me,” Elsa argued.</p><p>“Try me,” said Anna.</p><p>Elsa shrugged. “All right,” she said. “Ada is my ex girlfriend.”</p><p>There was a moment of silence.</p><p>“Okay, I don’t believe you,” said Anna, and her sister burst into laughter.</p><p>“I told you so,” Elsa said, still laughing, looking at a befuddled Anna in the couch beside her.</p><p>“Elsa, this doesn’t even make sense.”</p><p>Elsa chuckled, and began telling her sister the story. She saw Anna’s eyebrows gradually go up as it dawned on the younger girl that what Elsa had said about Ada was truth after all. Elsa told her about their meetings, and their kisses... but glossed over a few details of the night when she accidentally froze Ada’s skin. They might be sisters, but Elsa thought some things ought to remain private anyway.</p><p>When she finished her story, Elsa saw that Anna was bewildered, staring at the table in the center of the room.</p><p>“Anna, are you there?” she joked.</p><p>“I... can’t believe I never knew about this,” Anna explained. Elsa shrugged. It was only logical that Elsa and her parents wouldn’t tell Anna about it, since the three of them were set on keeping Elsa’s powers a secret from her sister, for Anna’s sake. “All this time,” said Anna, “all this time I thought you were completely alone behind that door... and you were hiding a girl there!”</p><p>Elsa snorted. “Anna, it was only for three months. I... did spend most of the time alone in there, if you want to know.”</p><p>Anna sighed. “And here I thought I was the first of us two to find love, because, you know, I met Kristoff and all... but you beat me to it six years ago!”</p><p>Elsa laughed loudly. Olaf, who was just coming back into the room, asked what the joke was, and Elsa made something up on the spot, proceeding to distract Olaf with some comment about betting his carrot nose she could beat the snowman in their board game. Alone on the couch, Anna looked to her side, to where Elsa had been sitting, and saw the journal her sister had been reading.</p><p>“Elsa, this journal...” she began to say, reaching for it.</p><p>“Ada made it for me,” Elsa explained, “since I couldn’t leave the castle. It’s been so long since I last read it. Go on, give it a read,” she told Anna, turning back to play the game with Olaf.</p><p>Anna read.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The house above the blacksmiths’ workshop wasn’t too big, or comfortable, but Ada thought it was perfect for the two of them. While she waited for Tuva to wash herself, Ada stood still, looking at herself in the mirror. Naked from the waist up, she could clearly see the scar left behind by ice, six years earlier. Most people think scars are unsightly, but Ada couldn’t bring herself to think the mark Elsa had left on her was anything but beautiful. It resembled lace fabric, woven from numerous snowflakes and ice crystals, covering the left side of her chest. Ada hardly ever thought about it anymore, these days. But meeting Elsa in the city that afternoon had stirred things inside her.</p><p>Tuva came into the room, drying herself with a towel. She sighed, knowingly, and sat on the bed to talk to her wife.</p><p>“You met her again today,” Tuva said.</p><p>Ada nodded, slowly, still looking at the patterned scar, in silence.</p><p>“She’s a very enchanting woman,” her wife admitted. Ada smiled, tenderly.</p><p>“Yes she is,” said Ada.</p><p>“Do you still love her?” Tuva inquired. It was a question she had thought of asking many times before, but could never quite bring herself to do it.</p><p>“Yes,” said Ada, without hesitation, caressing the scar on her own chest. “And I don’t think that’s ever going to change.” She turned to look at Tuva’s eyes, which seemed a little desolate. “Can you be okay with that?” Ada asked. “That I love you even though I’m also in love with Elsa?”</p><p>Tuva smiled a little. “I suppose I’ve always known,” she admitted. She took a deep breath, and stared into her wife’s eyes. “I’m not jealous of your feelings for Elsa,” she announced. “I don’t want you to have to change, or to hide your feelings. And I have a hunch that I’d lose if I asked you to choose between her and me.”</p><p>Ada giggled, but didn’t deny it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I added a couple more sections to the end of this, because I really didn't want to end the story without talking about Ada's scar, or Anna's reaction to the whole thing. For now, I think this is complete.</p><p>Also, if you enjoyed reading this story, I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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